Our view: Stakes too high for tribe to give up union fight

Thursday

Nov 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2007 at 12:52 PM

It should come as no surprise the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and Foxwoods Resort Casino intend on appealing last week's employees' vote to unionize. The stakes are high for both employees and employer, and the impact of the outcome wide-ranging.

It should come as no surprise the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and Foxwoods Resort Casino intend on appealing last week's employees' vote to unionize. The stakes are high for both employees and employer, and the impact of the outcome wide-ranging.

The election results not only impact the dealers at Foxwoods, but now will involve the remainder of the Foxwoods work force as other unions prepare to organize those workers -- as well as the work force at tribal casinos across the country, including Foxwoods' neighbors, Mohegan Sun.

For the Mashantuckets and casino officials to forego a challenge to the union vote would be to acquiesce and surrender to those union efforts -- something the tribe is not likely to do.

What is unfortunate, however, is the process involved in reaching a final resolution to the issue lends itself to a confrontational environment that will serve neither side well in the future. In order for the tribe to force the issue into federal court, the casino will have no option but to refuse to negotiate with the union representing the roughly 2,600 dealers who chose to join the United Auto Workers union.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, describing the union vote as a "historic golden opportunity," is urging tribal and casino leaders to abandon any challenge to the election results, saying the tribe "could go down in history as the mentors and models for other tribes" by negotiating with the union.

In a perfect world, that might happen. But with all due respect to the attorney general, it would be naive to believe that would happen given the enormous stakes at risk. The issue is tribal sovereignty. And it is an issue that can only be resolved in the courts.

The Mashantuckets and casino officials maintain the National Labor Relations Board has no jurisdiction in the matter and the union vote should have been conducted under tribal law, not federal labor law. Under tribal law, workers could still unionize, but they would be prohibited from calling strikes and the casino prohibited from implementing a lockout if negotiations reached a stalemate. It would, however, provide for binding arbitration -- a situation similar to the same rules that now apply to teachers across the state.

The NLRB has already rejected the tribe's jurisdictional argument, leaving the tribe only the option of pursuing the matter in the courts. But to get there, it must first force the NLRB to file suit against it for refusing to negotiate with the union.

Such a course likely would result in a confrontational standoff between employer and employees, potentially causing bitter and harsh feelings on both sides that could further spoil the workplace atmosphere for each.

Eventually, this issue will be resolved. Who will ultimately win the jurisdictional argument is yet to be decided. But no matter how that is resolved, what does appear clear is workers at Foxwoods will be represented by a union, either under federal or tribal law -- and both sides will ultimately have to sit down and negotiate a contract at some point.

It would behoove both sides to strive to avoid creating an acrimonious environment in which to ultimately reach that final conclusion in the future.

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